Brink booted as Tshwane mayor
South Africa’s capital city, Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, is without a mayor after Cilliers Brink was voted out in a motion of no confidence on 26 September.
Brink was removed by 120 votes to 87, with one abstention.
The motion to remove the Democratic Alliance (DA) mayor was supported by the African National Congress (ANC), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), ActionSA, Patriotic Alliance (PA) and other minority parties.
Those against were the DA, Freedom Front (FF) Plus and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP).
One councillor from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) abstained.
The motion was brought by the ANC, which claimed that Brink’s 18 months in charge of the metro have been ineffective, particularly in lower-income areas.
However, Brink and the DA say the multiparty coalition government has made steady progress under his leadership.
The coalition in Tshwane that had been in place for the past year and a half comprised the DA, ActionSA, FF Plus, IFP, and the ACDP.
These parties made up a slim majority in the council, sporting 108/214 seats; however, the coalition in Tshwane had long been on a knife’s edge because of tensions between the DA and ActionSA.
Notably, the motion was supported by a party that was part of the multiparty coalition (ActionSA), who sported the deputy mayorship and several MMC positions.
For weeks, ActionSA and its leader Herman Mashaba have been vocal about the working relationship with the DA-led coalition as well as service delivery in Tshwane, claiming that poor areas were being ignored.
He also bemoaned the DA for breaking the “moonshot pact” which was signed by opposition parties before the election looking to unseat the ANC.
He said the move to remove Brink was triggered by the DA’s talks with the ANC, and the party then took a decision to cut their relationship with the DA and work with the ANC to remove Brink.
The ANC has previously filed two such motions against him, but both were withdrawn before they could be voted on.
The DA, which is in a working relationship with the ANC at a national level and in KwaZulu Natal, have had a bitter relationship in Gauteng.
The DA said that its national leadership approached the national leadership of the ANC to “seek a stability pact across Gauteng metros.”
“We have made several attempts to persuade the ANC to withdraw the motion of no confidence against Mayor Cilliers Brink. The motion was first initiated in July this year, and the Lesufi faction of the ANC have been hard at work to drive a wedge between Tshwane coalition partners,” said DA Tshwane spokesperson Kwena Moloto.
ANC Tshwane regional secretary George Matjila said that the DA “was arrogant” in trying to negotiate a deal with them to take over the city.
He said that the DA wanted to govern Tshwane alone and offered the ANC support in the city of Ekurhuleni where the ANC already has a mayor and finance MMC positions.
The DA disagreed and said that “the same ANC faction, led by Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, resisted efforts to form a Government of Provincial Unity, and have championed the ANC’s… coalitions with the EFF in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.”
The DA said that this “destroys any possibility” of an agreement between them and the ANC to stabilise Gauteng metros, and is a repeat of failed attempts to form a Government of Provincial Unity in Gauteng.
Loading ...
